I've watched a lot of variety shows in the past couple years, and I can say with certainty:
Foreigners are a novelty.
It's a shame. Most of the time, when there's a group of people sitting and being asked their opinions on various things, the foreigners are stuck in the back corner. Furthermore, they're usually made to wear big name tags with the flag of their home country on them. Because that matters.
On top of that, regardless of their Japanese ability, they are only ever called on once or twice, and permitted to speak for maybe 15 or 20 seconds before they're cut off.
HOWEVER! There is a shining light amidst all this, a white knight as it were:
Dave Spector.
This guy is fantastic. He's so unassuming; he's short, quiet, and meek, but his Japanese is near-native. I mean like, Japanese people can't even hear his accent. This guy is fantastic.
So that means they let him talk for about 30-40 seconds.
There's also this big huge black guy... I think he's called Billy or Bobby... anyway he's an intelligent guy with great Japanese skills, but when he's on TV he plays the hulking giant with a pea-sized brain and the most unintelligible Japanese ever. The shows always make fun of how you can't understand anything he says. It's a shame he puts on this persona, but hey, that's showbiz.
